On the Short Wave episode, “How do we make sense of the sounds around us?”, NPR’s All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro briefly chatted with neuroscientist Nina Kraus about her new book, Of Sound Mind. In the episode, the two discussed how our brains construct sounds. What makes Short Wave an interesting podcast method is that it takes existing interviews and articles from different NPR shows and creates a snippet to reflect upon.
Ari Shapiro takes the lead in this traditional format asking Kraus questions about her book and elaborating on the concept. Within the interview, there are sound bites of music and songs and archived recordings as supporting elements.
In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience #1554, Joe Rogan speaks with the man, the myth, the magic—Kanye West.
As we all know, Kanye West loves to talk—especially about himself. Joe Rogan’s episode gives a masterclass on how to interview a subject like Kanye West. Joe Rogan allowed Kanye to rant and to explore some of his more creative thoughts in a way that previously Kanye West has not been able to do.
Joe Rogan does not have a particular agenda and leaves some of his previous biases at the door. While he does take additional time within the interview to allow KW to redirect his train of thought, he never comes off as arrogant or smug—as he’s been accused of in other episodes.
For example, when Kanye West makes the grandiose claim that he wants to have the first trillion dollar company, Joe nods in approval and allows him to continue in his “rant” or explanation without questioning the legitimacy or even the mere possibility of something of this caliber being able to be accomplished.
Kanye West as a guest has a tendency to rapidly jump between subjects and this in the hand of a less experienced interviewer/podcast host could leave audiences confused and disinterested. However, JR gently ushers KW into his original thought with verbal and nonverbal cues. JR also references and brings up previous conversations as precursors to the podcast episode
One of my personal favorite instances of the podcast episode is when Kanye speaks about his daily schedule. His devotion to allocating time for his children and then educating himself is extremely admirable and quite similar to the way in which I spend my day. I think there are so many books and things that talk about the “daily schedule of successful people” and as a Kanye West aficionado, I was glad to have a glimpse into his world.
The set up is professional, Joe Rogan has a duel mic setup and encourages his participants to drink and indulge in vices on the show in hopes to make the guest more comfortable. It can also be thought of as a slight form of manipulation in the form of inebriation to get them to reveal more than what they would while sober.
A Little Brit of Everything 